Isn’t it all about an interface?

In layman’s terms I would describe an Interface as a final product or service available to the end user. The user is not concerned with what goes in the background but definitely looks for an easy to use friendly frontend which allows him to get a task done. Imagine about your favorite Facebook site - You want to add a friend to your friend list and to do so Facebook gives you a link to a huge database and you need to search and sort to just add a single friend to your friend list. Would you still be willing to use Facebook where each function requires you to perform several steps before you achieve a goal. For example: upload a photo, join a community or add a friend.

To gain a competitive edge companies need to provide interfaces to the outside world, create awareness so that customers know what the company is about and what it deals in and what is the best that customers can achieve in terms of cost and quality by using the company’s interface. What have various companies like Apple and Blackberry provided you so that you can receive Facebook, Twitter or email alerts on your phone - they have just provided you an interface. With an Iphone in your pocket you need not roam around with a laptop because you can check email, pay your bills, and make a reservation while you are on the run.

The following link is of a video where Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry of MIT’s Fluid Interfaces Group talk about sixthsense technology…it is an amazing product

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Jd5uwBvQU

I have also embedded the same video on our blog.
The web is opening doors to more and more interfaces. With web 3.0 on the horizon businesses have already started taking advantage of the available interfaces. For example – Linden labs creation “Second Life” where people can almost live their life’s. People can shop, travel, buy, sell, do business and basically experiment stuff that they would want to do in real life.

Web 3.0 is moving the web world towards open data, structured data, smarter ways of filtering content, real time and highly personalized data where a single interface would give you all you need to know.